Rab­bit, Rab­bit. White Rab­bit. Rab­bits, Rab­bits, Rabbits.

Not fol­low­ing? This tra­di­tion of stat­ing one of the above (or a vari­a­tion) upon wak­ing up on the first of the month is a super­sti­tion that’s meant to bring you good luck for the 27 to 31 days ahead. Kind of like ‘a pinch and a punch for the first of the month’, but you know, friendlier.

So I may be a tad super­sti­tious – don’t even think of open­ing that umbrella inside, and watch out if you’re stand­ing behind my left shoul­der when I spill some salt – and when the good ol’ days of Nick­elodeon taught me the tra­di­tion of say­ing “Rab­bit, Rab­bit” on the first of the month back in the 1990s, it stuck. And it’s now stuck with me for the past 15 plus years… (A scary thought for all 90s kids out there… that was over 15 years ago.)

But my ques­tion is, did Nick­elodeon actu­ally make up this tra­di­tion which has now stuck with me and those oth­ers out there who remem­ber the ‘Nick Days’? After the obvi­ous quick search on Wikipedia, it turns out that this pre­dom­i­nantly Eng­lish tra­di­tion, though not well doc­u­mented, has been around since the early 1900’s at least. Upon fur­ther research, sev­eral peo­ple around the web do dis­cuss their fam­i­lies’ tra­di­tions and vari­a­tions of this rab­bit luck. There’s even a page ded­i­cated to the super­sti­tion, ran­domly placed within an old gem­scale site that will bring you right back to the 90s – and the days of cre­at­ing your own Geoc­i­ties or Angelfire sites. Many have com­mented (most recently in 2003) on the dif­fer­ent ori­gins and vari­a­tions they grew up knowing:

“There is a tra­di­tion in the mil­i­tary (at least in the USAF) involv­ing white rab­bit. It is a game, as well as a way to keep in touch with those with whom you were sta­tioned. When a new month begins, it is a con­test as to who can tell the other per­son ‘white rab­bit’ first; must be live comm, no answer­ing machines, let­ters, etc. Usu­ally the wager would be a drink. How­ever, like I said, it allowed you an ‘excuse’ to call peo­ple once a month and catch up.”

John-Deb dis­cussed a bit of a mean-spirited ver­sion in Oki­nawa with ori­gins in New Zealand on 25/1/1998

“Here on Oki­nawa, we have friends that believe that if you say White Rab­bit to some­one else on the first of the month, you steal all their luck. They believe it orig­i­nated in New Zealand.”

Ted went into a larger his­tory of why ‘rab­bit’, and where it may have actu­ally come from on 22/1/2000 here.

I was also inter­ested in find­ing out what other pos­si­ble ‘first of the month’ tra­di­tions existed around the world, but unfor­tu­nately couldn’t find too many for a new month. I hap­pened upon those for the new moon like Rosh Chodesh from the Hebrew cal­en­dar, the ‘pinch and a punch’ tra­di­tion, and then of course, the spir­i­tual, find-your-inner-goddess type cel­e­bra­tions with can­dles, crys­tals and intentions.

But why all this talk of rab­bits and luck and the start of the new month? Well today, on the first day of the month, I am offi­cially launch­ing my new site Quin­ntessences, an expan­sion of my old site Quin­ntessen­tial Style, and your new weekly guide to a quin­ntessen­tial lifestyle of sorts with style, inspi­ra­tions, mus­ings and plenty of quirks.

So my rab­bitry, good luck wishes and spir­i­tual inten­tions all go toward this launch of Quin­ntessences: Your Quin­ntessen­tial Week. Here’s to the luck that lies ahead as I get my bear­ings and head down this new and excit­ing rab­bit hole… (see what I did there?)